Somali pirates have reached such levels of audacity that the rest of the world now has to make a decision - bargain or blow them out of the water. It is well known that British, American and French fleets once fought the Barbary pirates who terrorised the Mediterranean. The largely forgotten part of the story concerns the efforts to address their brigandry through bribery.

From the 15th to the early 19th century, European shipping was prey to Arab pirates from the North African Maghreb. These Barbary corsairs seized vessels, cargo and crew, who were enslaved and often worked to death either as oarsmen powering the pirate ships, or by labouring in North Africa. But their greatest value was as hostages.

It is estimated that well over one million Europeans were seized by the Arab slave traders. Raids became increasingly daring, with landing parties making off with villagers not only in the Mediterranean but as far north as Iceland. They captured 353 British ships between 1672 and 1682.

Incursion were launched up the Thames estuary as well as along the West Country coastline. Cornish accents emanated from the slave pens of Algiers.

But the greatest pillaging was done along the coasts of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Months and often years could pass before villagers would receive letters from their lost breadwinners with demands for ransom payments.

The Church organised payment for their release: collection boxes were fitted with the inscription “For the Recovery of the Poor Slaves” and Rome organised huge hostage payments. It was like Ethelred the Unready's proffer of Danegeld all over again, with similar consequences. The pirates increased the price for the return of stolen goods and people.

The lightly protected vessels of the new United States provided such easy pickings that the future President John Adams concluded it was more sensible to give “one gift of two hundred thousand pounds” than to risk “a million annually” in lost trade. By 1800 the US was paying a fifth of its federal revenue in bribes to the Barbary coast.

Eventually the brigands pushed their luck. Thomas Jefferson concluded the one-off cost of war would be less than eternal tribute- paying. By 1815 the US Navy and Marine Corps were strong enough to deliver punishing blows. But it was the French who delivered the coup de grâce, by colonising Algeria.

That solution is unlikely to appeal to those now grappling to suppress Somali piracy. Occupying Somalia has already been tried.

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